AU
by hiddenshadowwolf
Summary: self indulgent 'save 2012 Donnie from the writers' multiverse fic tbh, involves 2016 turts and a short cameo from 2003 eventually because Skype buddies are terrible enablers lol
1. 100 Themes

Soooo... I may have decided to redo my layout for this. Rather than a standard fic I changed my mind and wanted to do the TMNT 100 THEMES CHALLENGE with this AU universe.

As such, 0 things will be in chronological order except for Chapter 1 as that theme is "intro" so... yay! Chapter one can stay how it is. Which is good cause it's 10,000 words long.

Anyways, the themes are as follows:

Intro

smile

dark

light

heaven

breathe

insanity

misfortune

holiday

silence

turtles

blood

gray

foreign

sorrow

happiness

under the rain

night

under the stars

hold my hand

eyes

abandoned

dreams

teamwork

dying

childhood

deep in thought

"Booyakasha"

keeping a secret

waiting

no way out

fairy tale

magic

do not disturb

multitasking

horror

hero

annoyance

I can't

are you challenging me?

mirror

broken pieces

test

heal

frozen

seeing red

pain

leadership

brainiac

joker

outcast

hothead

drowning

give up

last resort

in the storm

safety first

puzzle

solitude

relaxation

pets

imaginary friend

obsession

relief

desperation

music

courage

paranormal

things to fangirl over

movies

support

incognito

black cat

training

caves

bicycling

travel

treats

guidance

green

key

fight

gift

backstabbed

adventurous

curious

crush

hug

winter

autumn

cherry pie

kiss

spy

exhausted

focus

worm's eye view

bird's eye view

sunset

mastery

celebration

For those of you who don't like spoilers, please stop here and go on to the next chapter. For those of you that do, I've also included a one-sentence-or-less summary of what's going to be in each chapter so that you can get an idea of how this story is going to go. These may change if the muse decides to go a different way and blank ones are themes I haven't figured out just yet.

BOLD will indicate SMUT  
ITALICS will indicate gore/blood, etc

Intro - pretty basic, chars and OCs get introduced and boy howdy did I go overboard on this one

smile - Donnie looks back on a couple moments that happened through the OCs time there

dark - Liz has a conversation with April about Donnie

light - Liz accidentally mind-melds with Raphael

 **heaven - SMUT ALERT: There will be smut chapters and I will warn you in advance about them just in case of innocent eyes**

breathe - Liz is not super great under pressure and facing THREE equally omnipotent beings leads to a bit of a breakdown

insanity - What happens when an omnipotent being is sleep deprived and stuck in a room with two Mikeys? Complete and glorious chaos

 _misfortune - having the power to create ANYTHING you think about can sometimes be as much a curse as it is a blessing_

holiday - When it's discovered (accidentally) that Elizabeth can teleport them Anywhere, one evening in sun and surf doesn't seem like too much to ask

silence - Donatello requests a mind-meld

turtles - turtle tots fluff it's gonna be adorable

 _blood - surprise, it turns out that these omnipotent powers don't actually work on the omnipotent being that has them_

gray - *sings* everybody huuuuuuuuuuurts~

foreign - having a guest and a whole other set of turtles in one lair leads to some exchanges in unfamiliar customs

sorrow - Dr. Liz the Shrink is in the house and hosting an intervention

happiness - fluffier than cotton candy and just as sickeningly sweet: Donnie gets pampered **(possible bit of smut at the end? still deciding)**

 _under the rain - Liz has a brilliant idea mid-battle_

night - obligatory shell-ride over the rooftops cause I'm cliche trash

under the stars - outer space visit happens to find the still-living head of Professor Honeycut that was never revisited and loose ends make me angry

hold my hand - Don and Donnie (henceforth known as Double D) try to help Liz get over her fear of heights

eyes - part of having a working relationship with your heroes means learning to look them in the eyes and not instantly vanish from sight

abandoned - *rubs hands together* oooooh yes there will be angst, Liz literally runs away from all the pressure

dreams - Donnie coming to realize that Liz really just wants to hang out and make him smile via spying while she's sleeping

 **teamwork - Donatello sandwich smut, it's gonna be very explicit**

 _dying - turns out all the BS about Healing Hands doesn't work so well when someone's bleeding out_

childhood - half-n-half split between fluff and angst, tots are cute but also growing up a mutant is really hard

deep in thought - mental telepathy exploration, **might get dirty once or twice**

"Booyakasha" - Mikey definitely says it best

 _keeping a secret - The Michelangelos are not as innocent as everyone makes them out to be_

waiting - will Liz ever come back after running away? Nobody really knows

 _no way out - Turns out Elizabeth's panic button isn't actually such a great go-to, fall-back, Option Z_

fairy tale -

magic - Just Elizabeth SAFELY exploring her powers after her exhaustion-induced insanity stumbled on a couple of interesting phenomena

 **do not disturb - when I say smut, you say fic! Smut *fic!* smut *fic!***

multitasking - Donnie is the king of multitasking and cons Liz into giving him a Time Turner with disastrous results.

 _horror - Uh Oh, maybe Liz has a dark side?_

hero - is it Liz? loooooool nope

annoyance - More interventions as people rag on the pair of Mikeys now that they can feed off of one another's insanity

I can't - Confrontation is not Elizabeth's strong suit

are you challenging me? - Elizabeth is seriously done with the alpha-male "I'm the leader" crap and puts the reds and blues on time out

 **mirror - body positivity is hard when you're a mutated terrapin**

broken pieces -

test -

heal - regaining trust after you run away is kindof hard

frozen - turns out ICK is perfect just the way she is

 **seeing red - Liz unleashes literal hell when Double D goes down in a fight**

pain -

leadership - surprise it's Mikey

brainiac - surprise it's Raph

joker - surprise it's Donnie

outcast - surprise it's Leo

hothead - surprise it's Liz

drowning - maybe meditation isn't actually for everyone Leo

give up - depression tw

last resort -

in the storm -

 **safety first - you can't just give me a prompt like this and NOT expect me to make it dirty THESE ARE DONNIES HERE LIKE REALLY**

puzzle - Liz may be a bit complicated but that's ok because Double D always did like puzzles

solitude - being an introvert in a house of EIGHT ninja turtles plus their human friends is hard

relaxation - this fluff will give you diabeetus

pets - PET FLUFF YES PLEASE

imaginary friend - while Liz is out there, having run away, she makes up some holographs of people and things take a surprising turn

obsession - Double D may be a brilliant, unstoppable force, but with Elizabeth gone they start to slide a bit sideways

relief - Liz comes back finally after having some sense talked into her

 **desperation - this theme screams smut to me soooo tada! more smut**

music - turns out the 2014/2016 turtles aren't the only ones that are musically inclined

 _courage - is it really courage if you're 98.6% sure that you're going to die?_

paranormal -

things to fangirl over - very early in the chronology, Elizabeth is having a hard time adjusting to there being TURTLES around EVERY corner

 _movies - they may be in a cartoon but this is nothing like the movies_

support - brothers may fight but they also have each other's backs

 **incognito - voyeurism smut with Double D, I'm sorry, I just had to**

black cat - Donnie is pretty sure he's bad luck so why get involved in a cute couple's potential happiness when you'll just ruin it?

training - 2016 vs 2012, very turtle-centric fanservice

 _caves - Elizabeth has an idea for how to keep out of everyone's way and stumbles on another 2012 loose thread in the sub-sewers_

bicycling -

travel - What good are magic powers if you can't take your turtles on a whirlwind, world-wide tour of all the cool things they wanna see?

treats -

 **guidance - first-time v-card smut, figuring out how to make terrapin and human genitalia work together**

green - hailing waaaaaaaaay back to week one, April is giving Donnie the cold shoulder for getting a bit flustered over Liz's affections

key -

fight -

gift -

backstabbed - yep Liz went there

adventurous - Elizabeth isn't a total stick in the mud, Donatello, give a girl a little credit geez

 **curious - somebody's got the yearnin' for learnin' and an eager patient willing to play 'doctor', who could say no to that?**

crush - oh no somebody's got a crush what do? also hails back to early in the chronology

hug - wait, touch starvation is actually a thing?

winter -

autumn -

cherry pie -

kiss - making out simply for the joy of it is Double D's new favorite thing

spy - actually jk Liz didn't really double cross the guys (see 84) she was just playing 'spy' and gathering intel

exhausted -

 _focus - LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE (final battle scene)_

worm's eye view - time to get existential and contemplate our place in the universe

bird's eye view - let's try this whole 'fear of heights' thing one more time and see if we can't clean up the city this time

sunset - I already wrote this one 'cause I had a cute idea and it's just pure first-date fluff

mastery -

celebration - turtles win yay what a surprise ending


	2. Intro

I was just walking. It was a well-traveled path to the grocery store, nothing I should have ever been worried about. I was thinking about my grocery list, my mind wandering over the lovely sunflowers that were growing in the empty lot I was passing. And that's when I saw it. A crack… in the air. I froze and stared at it, paying no heed to the two joggers that passed me by. It had to be a trick of the light. It had to be. But I couldn't be sure.

Normally I'm rather prudish about trespassing but this was something I couldn't just ignore. I crossed the road and crunched my way through the dirt to further inspect the thing I was observing… whatever it was. I walked all the way around it and it stayed put, this crack in the air. I got down on my hands and knees and passed my hand under it quickly. Nothing happened. It wasn't being held up by something… and there were no wires I could see leading to it.

Cautiously I reached out my hand and touched it… or tried to. My finger disappeared and I yelped, jumping back and snatching my hand away. I quickly looked down and stared at my unharmed index finger. It had definitely disappeared, but now it was here and totally fine. I reached out my hand and put my hand through this rip in the air and moved my head around to see if I could see where it went. It was gone, just plain gone, and yet when I pulled my hand out of this crack my hand returned whole and undamaged.

It was a portal of some kind. A wormhole. I didn't think they actually existed… just something in fan fiction stories and long physics equations. Where did it go? What was on the other side? I didn't know… so I stared at it for a while. I couldn't just leave it. I didn't know who else would find it. I couldn't call the police… this seemed like something that they would be just as ill equipped to handle as I was. I couldn't really just go jumping into it… it could be right over the edge of a cliff and I'd fall to my doom. How did I know that wherever it led was even on earth? What if I ended up on an alien world? I probably wouldn't be able to breathe whatever air was there. But … there was no gas or anything escaping out of the crack, so at least the air pressure was the same.

I made up my mind and took a deep breath. This was just too big and too cool to leave alone. I very slowly approached the slit and poked my head through it. Looking around… it looked like earth. Actually, it looked a lot like a big city. It was dark and quiet, at least. The rip led to a back alley and I could see a street nearby. I let out my breath and sucked in the air on the other side of the portal. It smelled dingy, but otherwise it was fine. Curiosity finally got to me and I stepped fully through the tear.

Something was different.

She couldn't tell what it was, but something was definitely different. The air almost seemed to crackle around her like lightning was about to strike, though there wasn't a cloud in sight on this moonlit night. She looked behind her just in time to see the crack light up and then disappear before her eyes.

"No… nonononono…" She quickly muttered to herself, reaching through the air desperately where her home had been. "Craaaaaap."

"Hey! Over here!" She heard someone shout from above. Suddenly slightly panicked, she whirled around and looked up frantically, her hands clutching each other and pressed tightly to her chest. "I'm getting some strong energy signatures from this way! Must be another Kraang portal!"

That was impossible, though, wasn't it? Kraang weren't real they were just on… looking around the woman noticed the dark bricks and the oddly even texture, only a couple of bricks standing out against the monotone color to indicate the structure of it. Looking down her hands even seemed a bit oddly textured and the proportions of her feet were off. On top of that she felt tingly in a way that she couldn't explain, skin almost crawling with it.

And the voices were getting closer.

Panicked, she froze and stared up towards the rooftops wishing powerfully that she was invisible. Rather suddenly there was a shout from down the street and four turtles wearing leather strapping and carrying weapons dropped into the alley just in front of her. They were turned the opposite direction, moving immediately towards the alley entrance where the shout and glowing orange of fire was coming from. Still frozen she watched with wide eyes as the one with swords gave a few hand signals, scanned the area including the spot where she was standing, but made no move to acknowledge her before all four took off in different directions.

It wasn't until they were gone that a rush of air escaped her lungs and she crept cautiously towards the same alley exit, peeking around the corner to see what it was the city was being attacked by.

Blinking in surprise, she discovered what looked to be a middle-aged businessman. Except for the fact that he was breathing fire and beginning to grow to huge proportions, sending the woman scurrying back into the alley. And as he grew so did his voice, making his intentions rather suddenly known.

"GRAH! Stop attacking me! I tell you freaks what to do! Not the other way around! Nobody tells me what to do! Now get away from me! Or else! I have the power to make you pay now!"

A smaller figure whipped around his legs, trying to trip him up, but the businessman pointed his finger at him and shot a fireball at him. His leather caught fire and the woman squeaked, luckily the turtle was able to quickly shrug out of his leather strap and get himself out of harm's way.

"LEO! We need a new strategy!" The burned turtle shouted, diving out of the way as another fireball nearly took off his head.

"KRAANG SHIP! EVERYBODY DOWN!"

And sure enough, when she looked up, there were suddenly dozens of Kraang ships all over the place that began attacking the man. A turtle, still smoking just a little, stopped running in front of her alley and she caught the color of his bandana finally. Red. "They're… attacking him? Huh. Now that's something you don't see every day. Kraang fighting the same guy we are. HEY LEO, YOU SEE THIS?"

Panicked at the gaze of the enormous, thundering businessman suddenly turning to look at the turtle beside her she cowered and wished he would stop shouting! Hide for pete's sake!

And then the strangest thing happened. The turtle was yanked by an unseen force into the shadows and started gaping with wide eyes, mouth moving though no sound came out. He started getting angry, clearly trying his hardest to shout even though nothing was happening, before finally snorting and reaching for his waist… only to remember that he was no longer wearing a belt. He threw his hands in the air and the woman tried to sneak over to ask if he was alright, only for the teenage terrapin to suddenly dart out of the shadows and smack right into her.

She fell to the ground with a cry, fearfully looking up for the giant man though luckily it seemed he'd moved on to shooting at the ships. Then looking back at the turtle who was already back on his feet and looking around wildly she winced and hissed, drawing his furious gaze finally down. "I'm sorry, I should have said something. Is your head ok?"

He tried speaking again only to drop his head backwards in frustration when it still wasn't working. Head snapping back up, though his gaze was falling a bit to the side of where she was, he put out his hands and began blindly searching for her. It was a bit of a shock but after a moment she carefully stretched out her hand and touched his. He jumped in surprise but snatched at the air where her hand was, catching it in a crushing grip that made her yelp.

"OW! Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" She jerked at his hand, rather suddenly realizing that it looked like his hand was holding… air. There was nothing in it. Despite the fact that she could clearly feel his grip around her hand there was nothing to be seen where her hand should be. And looking down… it was rather suddenly apparent that Nothing could be seen of her. But after a few rapid blinks of trying to picture what Should be there it all reappeared, the turtle's eyes snapping to her face now that he could see it.

He considered her shocked expression for a moment before pulling her to her feet and dragging her out of the alley, waving his free hand frantically to catch the attention of another. One in purple dropped down beside us, looking at the red one with a curious expression.

"Raph, what's going on?"

Raphael tried to speak, shouting at his brother, but with no sound coming out it did no good. The purple one, Donatello, hummed at him and pulled a flashlight from his belt. "Interesting. Open up and say 'ahh.'"

The turtle obeyed though he was still mute, the woman's natural shyness causing her to accidentally turn invisible again. Luckily Raphael still had a firm hold of her hand and as Donatello finished his exam he rather suddenly noticed the odd situation with his brother's hand holding what appeared to be thin air.

"Aack! Uhhh… Raph? Where'd she- is she invisible?" He nodded his head violently and pulled, earning him another yelp that startled the purple one. "Ah, hum, by any chance is she- ah right. You can't speak. Did that happen to have anything to do with this woman?"

Once again Raphael nodded his head, using his hand to pantomime running and then bumping into something and falling, then grabbing his throat with a fierce scowl. "I see. So you bumped into her and then you couldn't speak?"

"Hey!" She replied, offended and once again visible. "I didn't do anything to him! First he was yelling and screaming and going to get us both blasted with a fireball and then He bumped into me! I didn't do anything to him!"

Donatello rubbed his chin in thought, humming again. "I see. Did you maybe think about making him be quiet so you wouldn't be seen?"

She blinked at him, confused, but after a few moments replied, "I… I guess so? He was going to get us shot and I'm not a ninja! I would have died!"

"I see. Um, could you try thinking about Raphael being able to talk again?" Donatello gestured to Raphael, the red turtle scowling threateningly at her in a way that made her shrink and disappear again. Don sighed loudly and looked pointedly at his brother. "You know what, on second thought just leave him."

Raphael snarled and squeezed her hand, making her yelp. Quite done with being handled so roughly she shook at him again, anger sending him flying into the alley wall. He hit it with a solid thump and dropped heavily to the ground, making Donatello shout and pulled a startled gasp out of the woman. "I- I'm sorry! I just wanted him off, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Raphael pushed himself onto his hands and knees, pulled the rest of the way to his feet by Donatello. "I know miss, let me explain. It seems the Kraang have been pulling people into our world from other places. Places with enhanced people like you. Somehow coming to our world is changing them, but not all of them. You seem to be one of the few that have been changed by coming here."

"Changed?" She asked, looking down at her invisible hands. "So… I'm… the one making me turn invisible?"

"It appears that way." He replied, grinning at himself for his clever pun. "Now, if you could please give my brother back his voice? As annoying as he is we do kindof need him to be able to talk."

"I-" she started, breathing picking up at the sudden realization that she had done it without even realizing. "I- I don't know how!"

Picking up the sound of distress in her voice, though being unable to see her again, he held up his hands and lowered his tone to try to be as soothing as possible. "It's alright, don't get upset. Heh, that's what happened to our friend the businessman. We'll figure this out. I just need you to stay calm."

She nodded her head, not considering that he couldn't see it, her silence drawing Donatello forward a couple of steps in concern. "Hello?"

"Oh, um, sorry. Yeah, ok. I can… I can stay calm."

He nodded, looking at the place her voice came from. "Ok, good. Um… could you maybe stay here? We still need to stop that man but… with you being invisible…"

She nodded again, this time at least remembering that wasn't going to help Donatello at all. "Yeah, I can stay. Are you going to help me?"

He nodded, pulling out his phone to type on it for a second and then put it up to his ear. "We'll do everything we can to get you home. Hey Leo? Where are you? I found Raphael but he- uh- had a little run-in with someone."

Raphael snorted unappreciatively and crossed his arms roughly. She really did feel bad about taking away his ability to talk. But without any kind of direction or idea of how this all worked she had absolutely no idea of how to help him. Donnie made a few noises of ascension to whatever it was that was being said before nudging Raph and they took off together, leaving the young woman alone with her thoughts.

Not for long though as it was only about five minutes later that the purple one dropped back into the alley, smoking and several different shades of black and blue. The young lady squeaked in fright, making her curl up tighter. "A- are you ok? Don?"

He groaned and whimpered, pushing himself up to his knees. "Aaaaa-ha-how. Nng. Um… yeah. Mostly. We're going to fall back. We need a new strategy, this guy is tougher than we thought." He looked around for the source of the voice, eyes falling on the corner she had been in earlier even though nothing was there. "Um… this might be a little easier if I could see you."

"Oh…" she looked down at her hands again and climbed to her feet, Donnie looking around with no small amount of confusion. "Um… if we're going somewhere I could just… follow?"

He blinked at the space of air where the voice was coming from, unable to see the duck of her chin or the way one hand gripped her other arm tightly. "I guess so, but it really would be easier if I could see you." His eyes darted around in thought for a moment before extending his hand out towards the invisible girl. "Maybe we could start with your name? I'm Donatello."

Her hand found his after a moment of hesitation and much to Donnie's great pleasure pale flesh bloomed to fill his hand and a shy smile materialized before him. "Elizabeth."

His lips quirked up and he squeezed her hand just a little, causing a red blush to color her cheeks even darker though he couldn't understand why. "It's nice to meet you. Would you please come with me? We really need to get you somewhere safe."

She nodded and let him lead her to the nearest manhole cover, Donnie lifting it up and heading down first before calling for her to follow. Not surprisingly she was completely invisible before she even made it to the first wrung. The only way Donatello could tell she'd made it down was the sound of her shoes hitting the bottom, his mild frustration with trying to work with an invisible woman pulling him to try his experiment again. Extending his hand, while holding his side with the other, he waited for her to take it again.

And she did, reappearing as she did so. It was going to be a little bit of a walk to get to the lair so to distract himself from the slightly awkward feeling of holding a stranger's hand he did his best to strike up a conversation. "So… uhm… Elizabeth. Where are you from?"

"Colorado."

He blinked over at her in surprise, honestly having expected to hear some alien name for a far away place. Not one of the continental United States of his planet. "Really? Are you an escaped Kraang experiment?"

Her eyebrows furrowed together and she cocked her head at him. "No? I was just going to the grocery store when I saw a crack in the air. I was curious so I stuck my head in. It looked kindof like Earth and the air wasn't toxic and I wasn't just going to leave it there so I stepped through. And then it closed behind me."

"Have you always been able to turn invisible at will?"

"No!"

"Hmmm. Interesting. So this just started once you stepped through?"

"Yes? Is, um, Raphael still mute?"

"It appears that way, though I wou- wa-wait wait a second. Did I-" Donatello froze in place and turned to her with a suspicious expression, hand instinctively tightening just a little on hers. "Did I tell you his name earlier?"

Paling in a way that made her both drained of color and opacity she quailed a little under the glare. "Y-yes?"

Blink. "Oh." Tension seeped out of his muscles and an apologetic smile crept onto his face. "Sorry. I had forgotten, but now that you mention it I do remember that now. It's happened a few times where people know us before we know them and it Always seems to turn out badly."

"No it's fine." She answered quietly, following the pull as he started walking again. "I get being careful. I don't think I would like knowing that someone knew me before I knew them." He couldn't see her guilty expression or the cautious side-eye she threw him. "I'll... um... be honest though. This place looks a LOT like a cartoon show I like. Probably not the EXACT same one because, heh, I mean... that's crazy... but it does look a lot like it."

"Oh yeah? What's it called?" He asked conversationally, though he had to slow down a bit when even the invisible hand he was gripping seemed to start fading away. "Elizabeth? What's happening? Are you OK?"

"It's- I'm fine." She squeaked, nervously starting to pull back from him.

"Hey, hey, I'm sorry, we can drop it!" He quickly called out, the hand that had been holding his side coming up to find her far shoulder. After a moment of grabbing blindly at the air he finally found it and gripped it firmly. "Please, stop! I'm sorry, I just don't want to lose track of you. Home is just around the corner, and then once you're there we can figure this out. Just please don't disappear any more than you already have or we may never find you again."

Technically he was looking at her eyebrows but she wasn't going to correct him on it. However the intimately close proximity and the heartbreaking worry in his expression was more than she could handle and even the ability to hold onto her invisible body disappeared, Donnie's hands falling heavily to his sides. She skittered a few feet away as Donatello started flailing a little bit, trying to find where she'd gone. "Elizabeth? Hello? Are you still here?"

Not quite able to manage words yet she squeaked and mumbled something incoherent, giving him at least enough confidence that she wasn't totally gone that he could stop waving his arms around foolishly. "Oh, good! I thought you might have left, teleported away or disappeared back into your own dimension. I'm- I'm sorry for scaring you. Can you come out? Please?"

She swallowed noisily and shook her head 'no,' and though Donnie couldn't see it he took her silence as the same. So putting his hands up in a placating manner he backed up a step or two and gestured in the direction they had been heading. "Ok. That's fine. Would you, uh, like to just follow me then? We really do need to head back soon, I'm not the one in the worst shape out of the six of us and I'm more or less the family doctor, among many things."

"Y-yeah. I can do that. I'm sorry, I'm being very difficult. It's just... You're Donatello. And in my world you guys are just a cartoon but you're standing right there! I'm sorry, I'm just... freaking out a little. We- we can go though. I'm sorry."

"Cartoon?" He asked, turning carefully and starting to walk again. "About us?"

"Mmmhmm."

The voice sounded much closer and if he squinted he could almost see a hazy outline of the young woman so he continued walking and trusted that she was following behind him. "Fascinating. And there is a character that looks like a large talking turtle with a purple mask that's also named Donatello?"

"Mmmhmm. And Raphael and Leonardo and Michelangelo and Sensei. And April and Casey and Leatherhead and-"

"DONNIE!"

With a small peep Elizabeth vanished from sight again, having started to become visible again as she'd been speaking but at Leonardo's yell and mad dash towards his bruised brother her knee-jerk response was to vanish from sight. Not something Donatello was growing fond of but he was starting to notice a pattern. One that might, at least, prove helpful. "Leo, this is Elizabeth. She's invisible and no, I'm not crazy. Yes, I'm sure I didn't just get a concussion. Elizabeth, please say hello to Leo."

Leo looked utterly shocked and confused when the bit of air that Donatello made a vague gesturing motion to suddenly squeaked a shy 'hello' and one unbruised spot on his brother's arm dimpled as if being touched by an unseen force. "Uh... hi? Donnie, Mikey really needs you in the lab and I think Raph is going to pop if we don't figure out how to fix his voice. He's almost knocked out Casey twice. April's doing what she can to see if there's something wrong with his head but we really need your medical know-how in there. Are you ok?"

Donnie nodded and brought one hand up to grip the place where Elizabeth's nervous touch was resting, transferring her hand to the one she'd been holding earlier. "Yeah I'll be ok. I'm just going to bring Liz to the lab with me so I can run some tests once Mikey and Raph are all patched up." The invisible person started to radiate heat like a space heater, enough that even Leo could feel it as Donnie passed by. And the turnstile definitely rotated after Don had already gone through.

"Alright, I'll head back up with Casey and we'll see what we can do up there. Might not be much more than surveillance but it's better than nothing."

"Sounds good."

And so he did. Leo followed Donatello up the stairs long enough to shout for Casey, who was more than happy to flip his painted hockey mask down and skate off after Leo, and Donatello led their new guest into the lab, seating her down in a chair with a whispered request that she stay put so she didn't get lost in the lab space or stepped on or anything.

April was nearby, hands on her temples and eyes screwed shut, with Raphael and clearly deep in thought. Raphael had his eyes closed too but he looked more like he was counting backwards from 100 instead. Mikey was groaning pitifully on one of the lab tables while Donnie hurried over and started to look him over.

Elizabeth stayed put for about one minute before tip-toeing over closer to Donnie, curiosity distracting her self-consciousness enough that when the 6th sense feel of another presence to his left drew Donatello's eyes that direction he was pleasantly surprised to actually be able to see what it was that was causing that sensation. "Is he going to be ok?"

"I... honestly don't know. I mean... he's fine." Donatello scratched the back of his head and picked up Mikey's stump of an arm that was left. "The Business Man erased about ¾ of Mikey's arm. He's not suffering any blood loss and, to be honest it seems like other than the missing appendage he hasn't suffered any damage from it. There's no scarring, no muscle strain, just phantom pains and a missing arm."

Leaning in curiously her head cocked to the side and her eyes squinted to confirm that... yes, actually, that's exactly what it looked like. "But how? How do you just... erase someone's arm?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't know." Donatello lamented, sounding a bit distressed by it. Elizabeth leaned back and put her hand on her chin in thought.

"What about Wyrm?"

Donnie looked over at her in utter confusion, eyes squinted and eyebrows furrowed. "Who?"

"Wyrm." She repeated, spelling it out for him and explaining, "W-Y-R-M. He was in an episode back during the Space Arc, with the space zombies. Reality Bender, chaos guy that got locked in a 5th dimensional prison. Or... wait... no it was the Ulysses that got locked in the 5th dimensional prison. He was in some other kind of prison. Cube... something. 'Super Cube' or 'Hyper Cube' maybe but I don't remember what it was called exactly."

Donnie looked at her with alarm, though his genuine curiosity at having faced such a creature before but, "I don't remember ever meeting anyone named Wyrm when we were out in space. Space Zombies I remember but Wyrm and Reality Bending don't ring a bell at all."

She squinted at him in thought again, head tilting back to the side. "But Casey... Jones... wait... ok no wait actually you wouldn't remember that event because Casey wished that it had never happened, resetting the disrupted timeline. But he had powers like that where he could make things just disappear like it had been erased. Like a Genie but... really, really creepy and awful."

"So The Business Man is a reality bender? How does that even work?"

"He was some kind of primordial creator thing but it's been a long time since I saw the episode. If Fugitoid was here he could explain it better than I could."

Donnie balked in surprise at hearing the Fugitoid mentioned, almost no one knew him personally save for the turtles and the Triceratons. "The Professor? You know Professor Honeycut?"

Now Elizabeth's turn to balk she started to vanish but only made it about halfway before deciding that was invisible enough. "Umm... no? Remember how I said that this place reminded me of a cartoon I like? That's um, an episode from that turtles cartoon."

"Turtles cartoon?" Mikey nearly shouted, sitting up immediately with a much brighter expression than the moaning he'd been doing moments earlier. "There's a turtles cartoon? About us? It's really real?"

Now a barely visible, hazey outline she took a step back and dashed her eyes to the ground. "I… I don't know? You Look a lot like the turtles in the cartoon but I don't know if it's You specifically or another version of you or what it is."

Raphael, having heard and recognized the voice from earlier, interrupted by pushing past his brothers at that moment and pointing an accusatory finger in her face and then jerked it to his neck. The outline vanished in an instant, the subtle squeak of shoes on polished concrete hinting that she'd taken a couple of quick steps backwards. "R-Raphael I'm sorry, I still don't know how! I don't know how I did it in the first place! I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I want to fix it but I don't know what's happening."

He folded his arms unhappily and groused as best as he could with no vocal chords, essentially allowing his face and a few snorts through the nose communicate his feelings. Donatello watched the exchange with his hand on his chin, thinking deeply, before waving April closer.

"Elizabeth, why don't you try working with April on this? She's a Kraang mutant with psycho-kinetic powers of the mind. Maybe she can help you figure it out."

"Uh, sure." April replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Buuuuut it Might be easier to figure out if I could see Who I was working with."

Donnie gestured towards her, stepping around the table with his hand extended so she could take it. "Elizabeth is a bit self conscious which seems to be affecting her opacity. I'm sure once you get working then she'll reappear. For now you can use your powers to sense where she is."

April sighed wearily and mumbled, "I guess," before turning and walking towards the space in Donnie's lab where she'd been perched with Raphael. The hothead moved to follow but Donatello stopped him with a quick, "Ah ah ah, Raph you stay over here. I think it'll help her concentrate better if you're not breathing down her neck."

Raphael was, of course, less than thrilled with this conclusion and made several gestures towards April and, presumably, Elizabeth but Donnie just rolled his eyes and got back to Michelangelo and applying burn cream to his skin. "Just sit tight Raph, we'll get it figured out as soon as we can and your impatience isn't going to help that go any faster. How about you go find Chompy to pass the time? He's probably getting hungry."

Raphael huffed at his brother but turned to leave regardless, smacking the heavy metal door on his way out. The loud bang startled Liz invisible again where she stood nearby April, the psychic wincing at the thick waves of guilt that were rolling off of her. "Ehh- Don't… worry about Raph." She suggested, reaching for a drooping shoulder, "He'll be fine. He's just frustrated, but we'll make it right. So… how about telling me what happened?"

And she did, telling April almost verbatim what she'd explained to Donatello. April tapped her chin in thought as she listened to the story, applying her experience with mental powers to try to figure out the mystery. "Hmm. When I first discovered that I had powers it took a lot of concentration and I had to learn how to really visualize what I was trying to do. It seems like you were visualizing pretty hard when you were in danger. Close your eyes and try visualizing something."

Elizabeth blinked at April blankly for a second, a bit stumped. But hearing Mikey whimpering and whining about his missing arm at least gave her something to try. She closed her eyes and pictured Mikey with his missing arm, and then visualized the rest of it materializing.

There was a frightened scream from the other side of the lab and it made both ladies jump. Donnie had leapt away from Mikey in panic and Mikey was flailing his new arm around, both of them sporting eyes as wide as saucers. And with another concerted effort Raphael came running in and shouted, "What the shell happened!?"

Joining the pair of brothers that were freaking out he ran in and grabbed Donnie, the genius yelping and wincing from his injuries. "DONNIE LISTEN I CAN TALK AGAIN!"

"Ahhhhhhhhh-hahahaha, ow ow ow pain! Raph let go!"

"RAPHIE LOOK I GOT MY ARM BACK! I can play video games again! I'm saved!"

The commotion continued for several minutes, in which time Leo ran in with Casey shouting for the brothers to come quick. The herd crowded out of the lab with the two ladies in tow. The sight that greeted them was nothing short of amazing! Four more enormous turtles standing in the middle of the lair, even the smallest well above this universe's Donnie's head. The larger of two Donatellos had a pair of goggles over his eyes, scanning these small turtles for data even while his smaller counterpart began investigating the tech pack that was powering the goggles. Raph was practically oogling his larger version and the two Michelangelos immediately started coming up with a complicated hand shake.

April walked down quickly to begin mingling once it was apparent that it was safe to do so, sizing up these larger turtles appreciatively which was no small cause of concern for the smaller Donatello. Or sour feelings, for that matter. The guest, on the other hand, approached tentatively with wide eyes and small steps. A gazelle approaching a crocodile-infested watering hole might have done so with equal confidence as Liz showed approaching the churning mass of green but the sight of so many heroes together was as irresistible of a pull as the lure of freshwater on the savannah.

So much so, in fact, that the wonder of it had her standing next to the largest Michelangelo in the blink of an eye though one blink prior she was barely exiting the lab at a snail's pace. The sensation of a warm hand on his shell had Mikey turning around curiously, the moment after his eyes found hers requiring him to blink in surprise as the owner of that hand was suddenly gone. He could have sworn he'd seen a wide-eyed blonde and heard her gasp in surprise but… now there was no one there.

A little bit weirded out he nervously turned back around, the celebratory tone now underscored a bit by his paranoia. He didn't speak about it to his brother until the Leonardo's had decided to start to break up the party. "Alright, alright, that's enough ninjas. Now we still have a problem. The Businessman isn't the only one out there. He's been joined by two more that are on a power trip and are trying to take over the city. Bishop has them contained for now in TCRI and the random portals have stopped popping up so we have a little break to come up with a game plan. But we need to move fast. It'll be sunrise soon and I don't know if Bishop can hold them for very long."

Michelangelo snickered and shook his head, looking over at his large red brother for a second opinion. "The Businessman? Seriously? You guys have such lame bad guys. Who else do you fight? The Wolf of Wallstreet and Social Injustice?"

Raphael chuckled and met Mikey halfway for a forearm bump, making Leo groan in exasperation.

"Um no, we fight plenty of insane super villains."

Little Mikey piped up, very excited to share some of his personal favorites. "Yeah like the Newtralizer and the Super Shredder and the Creep and Rahzar and Tigerclaw and Fishlegs and the Triceratons like Captain Mozar and Tokka and Lord Dregg and-"

"THANK you, Mikey." Leo cut in, readdressing the slightly-more-impressed turtles with just a little more smugness now that his point had been proven. "As I was saying, The Businessman is bad news. He seems like he was a regular disgruntled guy in wherever he came from but transporting to our dimension somehow gave him superpowers that he fully intends to use against the city. He's tougher than the other bad guys we've faced because we don't know anything about him. And, on top of that, there doesn't seem to be a way to stop him. He can grow as tall as a building at will and shoot fireballs from his hands and erase anything he wants. He erased most of Mikey's arm in a single swipe!"

All eyes fell on the smallest turtle in the room, surprised at the cheeky grin and two handed wave that greeted them. "Not any more, brah! It grew back!"

"B-but…"

"Is that what happened to that invisible girl?"

Both Donatellos perked up, though for entirely different reasons. The larger of the two grabbed his goggles and dropped them over his eyes, searching the room in several different modes for this 'invisible person.' The smaller one smacked his forehead lightly and looked around for April. "April? April wasn't she with you? Do you still have her?"

"No! I was kindof distracted by seven foot tall turtles!" She gestured to the new turtles, the motion earning her a cheeky wink and pair of finger guns from Michelangelo and a blushed smile from Donatello. One that did not go unnoticed by his counterpart and the two purple-banded terrapins had a silent battle with gestures and facial expressions until the smaller Raphael groaned loudly and got between them.

"Grrr. Come on, weren't we just saying we needed to hurry before the city gets totaled?"

"Oh… uh… right." Donnie backed down sheepishly, though with one final glare at Donatello. Expression unreadable he pulled his goggles back down over his eyes and went back to filtering through modes in an attempt to search for the missing friend.

"I don't know if this helps but there's a strong heat signature coming from inside that room." He offered coolly, pointing towards the lab.

"Is anyone going to tell me what happened while I was gone?" Leo asked with an exacerbated flail of his arms.

"Or fill us in on what our plans are for getting us home?" Leonardo asked.

Donnie grumbled, looking between Leo and his lab in momentary indecision. Choosing the former he waved over Donatello and began to explain. "Elizabeth mentioned that in Her world we're a cartoon on television, not real, and in the cartoon we had an alternate timeline run-in with a reality bending Genie of sorts. If these guys are reality benders… the implications could be catastrophic! Especially if these guys have just barely gotten those kind of powers! They could destroy the universe or change the foundational laws of physics or who KNOWS what else!"

Donatello hemmed and shifted on his feet, looking down at his smaller version. "Reality bending? Is that even possible?"

Donnie grimaced, face pinched uncomfortably, but he couldn't lie to himself, even an alternate version of himself. "We've battled cosmic monsters and time traveled and dimension hopped and flown through cosmic oceans and shrunk down to atomic sizes to battle neutrinos within the imagination of Mikey's mind and seen so many incredible things over the past six… seven months… I think it might be."

Donatello nodded solemnly, pulling up his holographics so he could run some numbers. "Alright and you said The Businessman has two other reality benders that were brought here that need to be sent back to their own worlds just like we do. The odds of us, even with eight of us, against three hostile reality bending entities is less than .0000000000000002%. There is no outcome where this is successful and at least .9999999999999875% likely that at least one of us will be killed, erased, or permanently damaged beyond repair."

"Just like Mikey was… but… he's fine now? Donnie does that mean their effects are only temporary?" Leo asked, turning to Donnie who was looking starry eyed at Donatello's holographic display. Sighing and snapping a few times near Donnie's face he prompted, "Hello? Don? Anyone home?"

The jump back to reality wasn't immediate but after a couple of snaps his attention resurfaced, Don blinking rapidly and looking around in momentary confusion. "Eh? What?"

"Mikey's arm? Raph's voice? Does that mean the effects are only temporary?"

"Oh, no, those effects would have been completely irreversible." Don replied with a definitive shake of his head. "April was working with Elizabeth to try to figure out if she is a reality bender as well, my best guess would be that they stumbled onto something and Elizabeth was working to reverse the damages done."

Donatello blinked down at Donnie, then pulled his goggles down to look back up at the lab. "The invisible woman?"

"She's painfully shy and self conscious." He explained, gesturing that direction. "Apparently absolute power doesn't corrupt absolutely in every case."

"At least not yet." Leonardo surmised, looking at Donatello for feedback. He cocked his head momentarily to the side in acknowledgement of his leader's comment without looking at the oldest brother, still flicking through holographic displays. "Well does anyone have any better luck with her so far? You said April was working with her?"

Donnie nodded and motioned for the others to follow, explaining on the way, "Yes, but I did lead her back to the lair and I've spent a little bit of time with her. She seems harmless."

"We'll be the judge of that." Leonardo countered, striding in confidently with Leo tagging along behind.

"Wait! Wait!" Donnie tried, but too late, to get the Leo's to stop knowing that it would startle their guest (perhaps not the best plan when that particular guest could possibly have the power to rip the fabric of space time with the snap of her fingers) and therefore she disappeared into thin air with a small squeak where she'd been sitting. The stool skittered a few inches to the side in an apparent rush to get off of it, bringing the entering party up short. Now she could be anywhere, and Leonardo motioned for Donatello.

"Don? Status?" He scanned the area with his infrared mode on his goggles, easily pinpointing the white-hot outline of the nervous young lady a few feet back from the stool. Donatello smiled as pleasantly as he could from behind the goggles and waved at her a little.

"Hello! I'm Donatello, uh we were just hoping to be able to talk to you for a little bit." The infrared outline nodded, head turning a little to look at each of the people that were filling in around Donatello. "Hey, listen, I know this may look a little bit intimidating but I promise we mean you no harm."

She nodded again, arms rubbing against her biceps nervously. "I… uhm… I know. You guys are heroes in my world. Fictional heroes that we created back in the 80's. It's just…" She gestured at the cohort, a motion that only Donatello could see in infrared in addition to the fact that her temperature was steadily rising up to what might be considered dangerous for a normal creature, words failing her for a moment as she tried to explain the overwhelming awe of the situation she had found herself in. "It's a lot to take in?"

Donatello tried stepping a little closer but the heat waves that started radiating off of her were too powerful for him to get any closer. In fact it started to scorch the concrete where she was standing, painting an easy target for where she was standing even though she was invisible. Immediately deciding that was a terrible idea he quickly started to back up with his hands raised in a placating manner. "Easy, easy, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I know talking turtles can take some getting used to."

Donatello's quiet chuckle at his own comment, for some reason, seemed to do the trick and the searing heat immediately died down. In fact, it died down so quickly it left the whole lab feeling pointedly cold while Elizabeth crept forward. Her expression of soft reproach didn't require special equipment to see, focus on the topic slowly bringing her opacity back up to normal as she spoke. "No, no Don it's not like that. It's… yes because you're turtles but not in a negative way. You really are cartoon heroes where I come from. People adore you and love you and collect your action figures and write stories about you and spend weeks creating art around you and your brothers and all of your mutant friends and foes. But you're HERE! And… I'm here!" She made a wide, sweeping gesture around at the lab, taking a second to look around in obvious wonder before her hands clasped at her chest and she grinned back at the lineup of turtles. "It's incredible and unbelievable and if this is a dream I don't want to wake up but oh man do I wish this was real."

"This is very real." Leonardo responded, but he didn't get very far before Michelangelo squealed and jumped in front of his blue-banded brother.

"Did you hear that? We have fans! There are people who like us!" Then spinning on his heel he practically danced in place in front of the steadily disappearing girl. "Does that mean you're a fan? Who's your favorite? Is it me? Am I in a cartoon? What's it like? Am I your favorite character?"

He started to shuffle forward with his arms outstretched but the heat waves were back and kept him at bay, the distress in her posture and press of her hands to her cheeks displayed prominently in Donatello's infrared had him unclipping his Bō and giving his little brother a little shove and a shock. "Mikey, give her some space!"

"He's fine." Squeaked Elizabeth, strangled tone betraying otherwise. But it was interesting to note that the heat did noticeably die down once Michelangelo was rolling away.

"Actually, I think we should All give her some space." Donnie suggested, an idea that Mikey nodded his head at vehemently.

"Dee's right dudes, it's gotta be kindof embarrassing having everybody stand around and stare at you. Let's clear out." There was another little heat flash at the mention of being embarrassed but nothing like what had blackened the concrete and started to melt a nearby toolbox. There was a little bit of muttering but the others acquiesced and started to back out, Donnie motioning to April for her to stay.

The two of them carefully approached Elizabeth, unable to get any closer than a couple of feet away for the heat that was shimmering the air. "I'm sorry, I really blew it. I didn't mean to burn your floor."

"I- It's ok. No harm done." Donnie offered with a weak smile, calculating the impossible temperatures she would have had to be putting out to turn the floor into a lump of charcoal. "I was thinking that maybe you and April could work together a little more and see if you can get a little better handle on these new powers you have. Maybe you wouldn't feel so embarrassed if you could control them better."

There was a defeated sigh and a small hot flash on top of the heat waves rolling off of the air above the scorch mark but it was followed by an, 'ok' soon after. April nodded and smiled at her, inclining her head towards the stool she had been sitting on earlier. "Come on, we can do this."

"But Donnie?" The temperature dropped and a hazy outline appeared with concern etched into her face. "What about you? Do you need some help with your burns?"

Now his turn to heat up in embarrassment his cheeks turned a little bit pink and he looked himself over. "I- I got it, thanks. There's a couple hard to reach spots but I can get Raph to help me."

"I could…" Elizabeth started quietly but clicked her teeth closed at the thought of what could possibly go wrong with using him as a guinea pig. She'd gotten lucky with Mikey and Raph but some more practice was probably a good idea before using live test subjects. "Ok. Sounds good."

Invisible head ducked shyly she followed April to the stool and sat down, Liz taking note of Donatello peeking his head back into the lab and sneaking over to Donnie. The two boys got started with cream and bandages while they spoke in low tones, a sight that would have to be ignored in favor of April if she ever wanted to be able to figure herself out. And so the two ladies got to work, April directing and Elizabeth following her lead. Their visualizations did eventually lead to cleaning up the scorched concrete though much to April's personal frustration the process seemed to go much faster than expected. In the amount of time it took Donnie to get bandaged up everything April could think of having her do was done including some more fantastic suggestions that ended up filling the lab with golden butterflies and a herd of pink elephants the size of house cats.

Throwing her hands up in frustration April finally stormed out, leaving an invisible heat source behind on the stool. The colors in the lab tinted just a little more blue than usual, drawing the eyes of the two Dons, and the larger of the two dropped his goggles over his eyes to get a better look at what was happening. It was a little bit surprising to see Elizabeth curled up on the stool with her knees tucked against her chest, arms wrapped around herself miserably, and Donatello took off his goggles to let Donnie have a look through them as well.

The two geniuses crossed the lab space quietly, Donatello taking the lead by softly calling out, "Hey… is everything ok?"

She looked up and flushed a good 75 degrees warmer but put on a smile for them regardless. "Yeah, its fine. The, uh, good news is that apparently I can create things and destroy things by just picturing it in my mind. Which is… good." She started, becoming opaque so she could show them. She closed her hands together with a small clap and opened them again to reveal a tiny bird's egg that immediately hatched a silver fish, the shell disappearing into a puff of sky blue smoke. The fish swam lazily through the air for a moment before it too vanished in a puff of smoke, though when the two turtles looked back at the creator she seemed just as miserable as before.

"That's incredible! Why are you upset about that?" Donatello asked, pulling her blue-grey gaze up to meet his.

"I can create and destro that I visualize or imagine. But there's so much that's happening involuntarily, and I don't know how to control that. I'm still disappearing every time I feel self conscious and scalding anything within a four foot radius when I'm embarrassed. I'm still dangerous, and I don't want to be. But April seems to think that because I can make things with my mind that means I'm totally in control of…" she held out her hands and wiggled her fingers, sparks flying out of them like they were just lit on the Fourth of July, "whatever this is. I don't know if she's jealous or what but… I'm still basically a huge hazard. Picture Mikey suddenly having omnipotent powers of creation and destruction."

Both boys grimaced uncomfortably, exchanging looks of uncertainty. "Maybe April isn't the one to be asking then. Maybe Leo could give you some meditation help?"

"And what happens when I'm asleep?" She asked, the blue tint to the lab's color scheme growing deeper and darker. "What happens when I dream? What if I hurt someone? You guys are my heroes! What if I have a nightmare? You guys, I have to wear a retainer at night so I don't grind my teeth in my sleep because I can't even control my own mouth while I'm dreaming and Now I've got omnipotent power?"

Donnie looked around nervously at the lab, everything turning dark enough there were parts of it fading to black. Donatello too was starting to feel the dire stress of the situation but they both reached out at the same time to each take one of her shoulders in their hands. "Hey, hey, breathe. We'll figure it out."

The surprise at the physical contact had her blinking up at them rapidly, the lab returning to its normal shades and hues around them even as her skin grew almost hot to the touch. Cheeks bright red she looked down at her knees and shook her head at them. "No, that's not fair. It Always falls on you two to come up with some kind of gadget or solution to everybody's problems. I don't want to add to that, it wouldn't be right. You two deserve better. Especially him." She gestured to the smaller Genius and he blushed a bit under his mask.

"Me?"

Liz nodded and glanced up at him with a small smile that cooled her temperature to a pleasant warmth. "Definitely. After everything with Karai and April and space and Super Shredder? Definitely especially you."

Donnie giggled a little bit uncomfortably and pulled his hand back to rub at the back of his neck. And when the movement had her unfurling from her tightly wound ball Donatello moved back a step as well to give her some space. "It's just… what I do."

"But you shouldn't have to." She insisted, making Donnie look around his lab at all of the unfinished projects he had schrewn about. "Not the fixing things portion but the everything else on top of that. Leo blaming you for not doing enough for Karai or Sensei, your family dumping all of their broken toys on your desk without so much as a please or a thank you, the expectations that fall on your shoulders. The drama with April because she's too chicken to sit down with you and have a conversation about her feelings an-"

"Woah, hang on." Donnie interrupted, brows furrowing and hands raising in defense of his friend. "If it's not something she's ready to talk about she has every right to wait. I can't force her into anything, that would be wrong."

"And isn't it wrong that she doesn't care enough about how You're feeling to at least offer you a three second explanation? Not even a 'Donnie you're my best friend and I know you like me but with everything going on I can't even begin to process having a relationship right now so could we be friends until the fate of the world isn't in danger once per week?' Isn't it wrong that she can't even give you that much?"

He looked a bit like he'd been slapped across the face, stung and bewildered with nothing to say in return. And though she hadn't moved from her stool she was more solid, more controlled, and possibly even more powerful in appearance than she had been at any point thus far in her time in this world. Calmly, kindly, her head tilted and her tone softened to a slow cadence that both whispered and shouted of warm familiarity and understanding. "Donnie, you are amazing. You both are. You are sweet and brilliant and kind and so, so selfless. You give your brothers Everything, you work and you fight and you do everything in your power to make life as wonderful for them as you can and you ask for almost nothing in return. You are both incredible gentlemen and I am so… so sorry, little Donnie, that you are so used to getting so little in return for what you do that you can't see just how poorly you are being treated by the people who Should be treating you the best."

Nobody moved for a second, Donatello watching Elizabeth watching Donnie until a thick swallow broke the heavy silence and the smaller of the two turtles took a shaken step backwards. Eyebrows pinching together her gaze flickered over to Donatello to see if maybe she had overstepped, only to see his eyes dart away once she made contact. The heat started up again as Donnie turned his shell and headed for his desk, sitting down with finality to get to work, and by the time Donatello chanced another glance at this increasingly confusing enigma she'd disappeared again. He reached for the heat source, hoping to put a hand on her shoulder again, but couldn't quite make it without burning himself. He pulled his hand back a bit regretfully and settled for clearing his throat at her.

"Hey… um… I don't mean to pry or anything but… is all of that true? About…" He gestured to Donnie and she followed his eyes, Don taking note of the fact that the first thing that seemed to appear were her sad eyes. The rest followed soon after and she sighed through her nose in response.

"Of all the versions of Donatellos… he definitely is treated the poorest. Mirage Donnie, the very first one that inspired the creation of all of the others, the 80's Donnie, 2003 Donnie… you… they all have so much more respect and … just general love in their families than him. He's left out of so much, working himself to the bone, often falling asleep at his desk. I mean you saw, just a minute ago. None of his brothers were in here patching him up after he took care of his brothers. He was going to have to go and ask his Raph to help him out with the hard to reach spots he got burned on. Would you have to go and ask your brothers for help with that?"

He looked back over at Donnie with real concern, fingers twitching in thought. "N- no. I guess you're right. I thought it might have been a product of the excitement from our arrival but… you're saying that this is just a regular pattern of behavior?"

The solemn nod hurt Donatello a lot more than he expected it to, a determined look passing over Liz's face that had Donatello backing up a step. "Don, I don't want to risk hurting Donnie or hurt his feelings because of all of the time and resources and everything he's put into everything he does or the wrapping job he just did but… I want to help. Maybe I could start with his burns for now but…"

Donatello looked between the only other two occupants in the room, nodding slowly and then more quickly as the basis of a plan started to formulate. "What can I do?"

She smiled warmly up at him and he glanced down momentarily in a flash of shyness. "Show the others what being a good brother is about. See if you can get yours on board because All of them treat each other poorly here in this universe. They have their good moments, yes, but the general atmosphere isn't where it should be. They really need an example of how good brothers treat each other regularly. I don't want you to put on a dog and pony show but do show them by example what it is they're doing wrong. I can do the extra legwork as far as actual work goes and honestly I'd love to do what I can to help you too. Donnies have always been my favorite out of all the brothers, with only a few minor exceptions, so if I can do anything to return the favor…"

He snickered in mild disbelief that he could be anyone's favorite but accepted it for what it was all the same. "Really? Can I ask who the exceptions are?"

Elizabeth giggled a little and ducked her head shyly, breaking eye contact to fiddle with her fingers. "There's a non-canon webcomic series that's really popular where all of you are cursed by a demon that possesses you in such a way that all of your good characteristics are squashed and your bad slash evil ones are strengthened. That Donnie is a terrifying murderous psychopath that is bent on using whatever means necessary to bring their Sensei back to life…. Mikey beats out that Donnie in that version of turtles for his incredible resilience and the comeback he makes in the face of his own curse."

"Heh, yeah I guess if I was an evil mad scientist I could see that." He joked, eyes sparkling with humor. "Note to self, don't ever turn into Baxter Stockman."

"Hey hey, that's not what I said." She countered with a mockingly reproachful glare. "Mad scientist Level 3 is still a damn good look for you. Just don't turn it up to 11 because then it becomes hard to work with as a character."

Don's nose crinkled in disbelief, head tucking to the side curiously. "Really? You'd still pick a Level 3 mad scientist?"

Emboldened by his genuine interest Elizabeth batted her eyelashes at him and leaned forward on the stool. "I'll have you know that I have been a part of an online tmnt roleplay community as an oc for the past three years who's whole backstory is based around being a manipulative Biochemical Engineer lab tech for Baxter Stockman. I can excuse a little bit of madness as long as you talk nerdy to me."

He giggled and blushed darkly, shuffling in place at the unfamiliar kind of attention. "Well… I, uh, I'll have to see what I can do."

The teasing grin dropped away and she stood up with cautious concern, hands reaching for him just a little. "Not if you don't want to. Even just getting to talk to you is incredible, I'm not looking to con you into some kind of tryst or anything. I really do genuinely love your character, no matter the incarnation, and that's not going to change whether or not I 'get any action.' I'd rather earn a place as your friend than as a one-night stand."

He nodded quickly and found himself reaching as well, hands meeting between them so he could give her delicate little fingers a careful squeeze. "I understand, and… me too. But… I- uh- don't want to take that second option totally off the table either." He admittedly shyly, head tucking between his shoulders a little and a dark blush spreading all the way down to his plastron. Even in the middle of deciding exactly how mortified he should be it was charmingly endearing to see a matching blush spreading over her face in addition to a huge grin… right before it vanished completely along with the rest of her. The warm weight in his hand, however, remained and he carefully pulled her along towards Donnie's desk towards the turtle who had been covertly watching and straining to hear but could catch nothing of the conversation spoken.


	3. Smile

Donnie noticed that Elizabeth smiled a lot. She didn't always say what was on her mind, even more of a closed book than he was, but what she didn't speak certainly came across loud and clear through non-verbal communication. Body language. And for better or worse, her body had a whole lot to say to all of them.

The first smile that Donnie really remembered after everything was all said and done was the dangerous smile she gave Leonardo on Day One of being in their world. Three hours of sleep in the previous 72 made her mental stability questionable at best and just when the two of them had spent all night making a device to measure brain activity that could wake her up when she started dreaming, her power originating in the mind making this a necessity, Leo called a family meeting and started barking orders at the newcomers. She, and everyone else, tolerated it for a few minutes until Leo made the irreparable blunder of snapping at her for dosing off in the middle of his speech.

And then she smiled, and the sinister words it had to say left everyone slipping backwards outside of the danger zone. She was an unknown, entirely, and even though she'd worked alongside Donnie all morning even he wasn't entirely sure if he trusted her in that moment. She stood up and cracked her knuckles, Leo drawing his sword defensively in anticipation for whatever it was she might throw at him. But Elizabeth just chuckled darkly and shook her head, body listing to one side in unbalanced exhaustion. "Oh please, really? You're acting even more childish than usual. Put it away honey."

"Not until you stand down."

"Nnnnnnnnnnnnope!"

A terrarium appeared beneath Leo's feet, their leader shrinking down to the size of a her thumb with a simple wave of her hand and plopping into it unceremoniously. A glass lid snapped closed over top of it and a hush fell over the brothers as she walked over to pick it up. "Now Leo, you're on time-out until you can learn to be a little kinder to your brothers, understand? So you stay in the Cube of Shame until I've had a nap and then we'll see if your father ever taught you any manners at all."

"Uhhh... Isn't that kinda harsh?" Michelangelo asked hesitantly and Elizabeth shook her head a few more times than really necessary.

"N-nope. He's been a butt for like... all of this last season. Pushing Donnie when he shouldn't be and treating everyone mean-ly. No.. That's not the right word... Uhhh... poorly. Treating everyone poorly. Yes. So he goes on time out. He's been a butt for too long with no consequences and now he gets to go in the Cube of Shame." She toddied over to Mikey and passed off the terrarium, patting his little head when he took it dutifully. "You keep an eye on him, don't lose him, Big Leonardo is in charge now. And now... Imma have a nap. Nighty night!"

And terrifying as it was in the moment, Donnie found himself thinking back to that time with great fondness several times in those next weeks and months and even years later. No one had ever so definitively shut Leo down before, even Splinter had never put Leo on time-out when they were younger, and while it didn't exactly make up for those prior months of frustration and spiraling depression that all started with Leo nearly dying because Donnie had refused to follow his plan... it was a truly meaningful place to start.

Especially when those sinister, dangerous smiles were so rare. Usually they had been warm and sunny and kind and understanding, so understanding, even when that kindness and patience wasn't deserved. Elizabeth, as it would turn out, rarely ever dealt out consequences or justice personally but when she did... it was always done with a smile.

The next memory Donnie had of those smiles came almost immediately after her "nap," a 12 hour ordeal that constituted of forcing her to move through smaller sleep cycles to avoid REM sleep and the dangerous possibilities that came with it. Groggy and barely functioning, she still hunted him down first thing to hug him tightly and thank him repeatedly for working so hard to build it. He hadn't needed to, she insisted, and it was so sweet of him to do this for her. And for a compliment-deprived and touch-starved brainiac it nearly sent his systems into shutdown for a lack of experience in how to handle such things.

But she had other smiles too, the tight ones that she would give when she felt that she needed to hold her tongue to prevent an argument and the ones that didn't reach her eyes when things weren't going as well as she said they were. There were tired smiles that reached her eyes but only one corner of her mouth when she stayed up late with Donnie and Donatello to make everything right for their family and their world. The genuinely excited and joyful smiles that the pair of Mikeys were so good at pulling out of her no matter what state of exhaustion everyone was in. The relieved smile for every time she was able to save them from their injuries after a fight and the knowing smile that waited for their universe to prove her right.

The one that really, truly terrified him, though, was the one that reached into the dark recesses of his brain. It was her very slightest smile, one that was laced with empathetic pain, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hide from the way it made his best kept secrets so embarrassingly plain. It usually accompanied kind words and wise eyes and arms outstretched to catch him just in case he fell, that smile being the only thing to ever admit just how close to the razor's edge he teetered sometimes.

But it wasn't patronizing, or dipped in pity, and just like the dangerous smiles they were few and far between. Mostly they were warming and sweet, like cocoa on a winter day or a hot meal after a hard battle. But none ever tasted so good as the ones that melted on his tongue, freely given and free to take even when it wasn't much more than teeth pressed together because the smiles just wouldn't go away.

In fact, those might be his very favorites of all.


	4. Dark

3\. Dark

"Hey, April, you have a minute?"

"Um... yeah. I guess."

"Great! I was hoping I could talk to you about Donnie."

The very same Donnie who was pressed tightly against the wall just outside where the conversation between the two women was taking place, Donatello running interference for him in case any brothers decided to show up and try to spoil the moment for him.

"Um, sure? Why? Is he ok?"

"Yeah he's fine. But I wanted to check in on your relationship status. He's adorable and if you're still waffling about him then I'd like to try asking him if he'd be interested in a short little mini-fling. I mean who knows how long I'll be here, it could be another week or it could be months before we beat The Three Tyrants so..."

"Um... who said I was waffling about anything?"

"… Sweetie... It's been how many seasons now? You KNOW he's liked you since day one, and you've been stringing him along since then."

"Excuse me, I haven't been stringing anyone along."

"Ahem, and I quote, "You're not just a mutant, you're MY mutant." And then you kissed him. And then you turned around and walked away. Really? You really honestly believe that you haven't been stringing him along all this time?"

"Donnie is my best friend!"

"And I'm happy for you."

"I would never-"

"Stop. Please. Just... stop. April, woman-to-woman here, it's ok if you can't deal with his needs and the needs of the entire planet and the human race that sits on it at the same time. Donnie is adorable but he comes on pretty strong and I get that it's a lot of pressure to add on top of saving the world. I'm in my 20's and I'm already divorced because I was in that exact same situation. Not... saving the world obviously, but being completely unable to carry all of my responsibility and also my ex's responsibility at the same time."

"R-really?"

"Yes. But, to be fair, he was also manipulative and emotionally abusive and neglectful, which is the real reason I left him. He wouldn't listen to me no matter how many times I tried talking to him about it, and nothing was EVER his fault. He always had excuses as to why I couldn't possibly blame him and finally I couldn't take it anymore. So I get feeling overwhelmed. It's ok to feel that way."

"I mean... yeah... it is a little overwhelming sometimes. He's just so... intense and I don't know if I can match that. Not with the world riding on our shoulders, I can't drop everything for him when it might mean the world is going to literally be taken over by the Kraang!"

"I get that. So... Now you're best friends because Donnie had to learn the hard way to chill out a bit and give you some space. And since Donnie's your friend and you aren't interested in being in a romantic relationship with him, which is totally valid, does that mean you'd be alright with me stepping in a little bit? I've mentioned the possibility to him but he's pretty convinced that you'd be mad at him and it might drive a wedge between you two."

There was a beat of hesitation where Donnie's hands started to clam up, the silence feeding the worst of his fears, before April finally spoke again.

"Pff. If Donnie wants to run around with some..."

"April."

"No, no, really. He's welcome to go falling in love with whomever, or whatever, he wants to. I'm not his mother, it's not my job to go telling him what he can and can't do."

"April."

"I hope you two make each other very happy."

"April."

"What!?"

"Honey... I think you're forgetting that you're all Donnie has. You're it. End of sentence. He has his brothers, yeah, and his half sister and Shinigami but really... that's it. You can go to school and you can go to the surface and find people and you have literally an entire world of people that you could go meet and fall in love with."

"In case you haven't noticed I'm not exactly 100% human either."

"No, but you're human enough to pass as one. Donnie isn't. None of them are."

"They're all I've got too, you know!"

"I know. But April... please. Think of Donnie."

"I think about him a lot more than you think."

"Well how about we try something completely novel and try thinking out loud for once, hm? Because if you're really going to be upset at him for at least thinking about taking one of the very few chances that are ever going to happen to him where he can have a romantic relationship then you aren't as much of his friend as you say you are. You can't string him along for two years, give him no hope that he'll have any kind of romantic relationship with you, and then be mad when he tries to move on."

"No. You're right. It's fine."

"No it's not, because you don't feel like it is. A house full of boys may not be able to tell what a woman really means when she says 'its fine' but another woman does, so spill. If you've got an issue with it then what is it?"

"Nothing! Really."

"Woman, don't make me go in that head of yours."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I will if I have to. So you either pull it out or I will. I'm not going to stand around and let him go neglected a minute longer, but I care too much about him to let my need to make sure he feels the kind of love he deserves at the expense of losing his best friend."

"What? Donnie isn't neglected."

"Really."

"No, he's not."

"How often does he get a full night's sleep?"

"Every... most every night. He has to stay up late sometimes to finish a project but he gets back on his usual sleep schedule once it's done."

"How often does he get fed?"

"Always. His brothers bring him food when he gets busy."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes..."

"How often do people tell him thank you when he saves the day?"

"Every... time?"

"How often do people tell him thank you when he fixes the mundane things around the lair?"

"… Usually..."

"How often does he get the physical contact he needs?"

"What do you mean?"

"April he's holed up in his lab working on retromutagen or weapons projects so often he's about two days away from trading his turtle shell in for a hermit crab's. How often does he get brought out of his lab to be included in family bonding time?"

"I mean, we ask him..."

"April. You may not see it, his brothers may not see it, but Donnie does just about everything around here and he's so busy working his behind-the-scenes magic that he's also the least appreciated out of his brothers. Mikey is a close second, but that's for another day. The point is... Right now I'm here. And I maybe only have a couple more days left where I can smother him in love and affection. But I'd be doing more harm than good if the lesson that comes out of it is that love and affection are bad because it makes other people mad. Is that Really what you want Donnie to learn?"

"… no."

"Then please... talk to me. Help me understand."

"It's just..." Donnie's ears strained to hear, April having gone a bit quiet, and he was literally hanging on what might come out of her mouth next. "What happens when you leave? I mean sure, Donnie deserves all of that but then what happens when you're gone?"

"What happens when I'm gone, or what happens when you're gone?"

"… both. I guess."

"I hate to pull a Master Splinter on you with a fortune cookie saying but 'to have loved and lost is better than to have never loved at all.' Do you really think that Donnie would trade Knowing what it's like to have someone love him, all of him, just for one day, one week, trade that for the heartache that comes with having to say goodbye? When he's 30, 40, 60 years old should he be so blessed to live that long, which one do you really think he'll regret more? Loving and losing or never loving at all? Do you think he'd say 'at least I never knew how much that would have hurt' or do you think he'd say 'at least she loved me for a little while?'"

Donnie had to use all of his ninja training to breathe silently through his mouth in order to keep from sniffling at the deep tide of emotion that was threatening to drown him where he stood. Especially where there was a space of time where neither of them spoke, leaving the area painfully silent. But finally April gave a little chuckle and there was the sound of a stool scraping across the floor.

"I get the feeling we're not talking about you anymore."

"Could be. But honestly I don't see why it can't apply to both of us. I'm not trying to pressure you into anything but I NEED you to see why this is so important to me. Donnie might have two more years to wait for you to decide one way or another if you are going to try out any kind of romantic relationship with him but I don't. I have like... one week. Maybe less. Maybe more. If you decide that this is it for you, that you are happy with being his best friend for the rest of your lives, Donnie will be over the moon. Really. He loves you no matter what it is that you give him back, unconditionally. But how terrible would it be if he had someone who genuinely just wanted to see him glowing with happiness that couldn't because of a misunderstanding."

April sighed and Donnie had to press the heels of his hands into his eyes to try to stem the flood of waterworks that were soaking through his mask.

"I understand. And... I'm ok with it. I just... really care about him."

"I know. And I'm so happy that he has someone who does. I swear I'm not trying to replace you, or make anyone uncomfortable with PDA or anything like that. I don't want to make you jealous or angry with him. I just want to love him and I want you to understand why."

"Heh. Yeah, ok. Can I ask?"

"Sure."

"Why Donnie? Why not Leo or Raph or Mikey?"

Elizabeth snorted and Donnie's heart pinched to hear it, some small surge of pride welling up to hear someone laugh like it was ridiculous that his brothers, stable and cool-headed Leo or powerful and muscular Raph or funny and whimsical Mikey, could be more desirable than him. "Leo's too self righteous and gets stuck in his own little me-centered world, makes me insane. I'm an oldest child too and his leader-ly-ness just gets under my skin. Raph is a big misunderstood softy but he also takes out his frustrations on the people closest to him and honestly I cry when people yell at me so that's a no-go. And Mikey is a close second, very close second, but still second. I've definitely got a type and slightly-dysfunctional brainiac is definitely my type."

"Slightly?"

"Hey, it takes one to know one. And this _**highly**_ dysfunctional brainiac absolutely adores your mildly dysfunctional brainiac."

"Heh, I guess I can live with that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Not for my sake, but for Donnie's, could you mention that to him? I think hearing you say it would really help him feel better."

"Yeah, I wi- … … he's right outside isn't he."

"… maybe."

"DONNIE!"

And just for a second, as his pupils dilated in panic, the world went just a little bit dark.


End file.
